Page 11 of Enticed By the Alien Chef
I saw the Kertinal and two others huddled in a corner, and I knew that’s who Kara meant. There was only one way she could have been stolen successfully from a protected Kertinal facility: an inside man, which made the presence of a Kertinal male here extra suspicious. They were not the most commonvisitors in Akrod, and if their merchant ships did visit, they stayed in groups. The Ovters held themselves apart and considered themselves superior, but the Kertinal had mastered that attitude.
It was very tempting to stride across the taproom and plant my fists in the male's face, snap his horns from his skull, and stick them in his eyes. Once, when I was still a prime ruling the arena sands, I would have done it in a heartbeat. But in the real world, such things had consequences, and I was no hotheaded youth. I withdrew after carefully memorizing each face of the males that shared the Kertinal’s table, and focused on my mate, who needed me to act calm more than anything right now.
Kara hadn’t made any headway with the string beans while my back was turned; her hands were shaking in her lap. They were shaking so much that I gently freed the knife from her grip and curled her hand around the now slightly cooled tea instead. Drink, I gestured, miming the action of taking a sip, which made her smile gently. “Sorry, Rex. I didn’t think seeing them would upset me so much. I’m better now. When can we go home?”
Go home, I could do that. The kitchen had closed a while ago, and I’d only been doing prep work and cleaning for the next day. Drova could do without a waitress with a small crowd like that; everyone looked half asleep. Urging my female to take a few more sips of the drink, I set about closing up shop—locking away the food in the cold storage unit, rolling up my knife set, and putting that under lock and key. Then I took the cloak I kept for Kara and pulled it around her small shoulders so that she’d be properly warm and covered.
She protested when I picked her up instead of letting her walk out on her own two feet, but she subsided soon enough, settling her head against my chest and resting quietly as I walked. She was still so pale, and now that the initial protective surge was fading, I could remember that it had started before she had even laid eyes on her kidnappers in the bar. Was she getting sick?
Once we were home, she got even quieter, and I didn’t miss how she winced and clutched at her temples a few times. A headache, then—was that common for humans? I signed at her to ask, but that made her eyes water, tears trickling down her cheeks. I tried again with the datapad, writing her a message, but she looked sad and shook her head. “I’m fine, Rex. I want to sleep. Will you…” she hesitated as if she was afraid to say what she wanted, and I urged her on with a hand. If she knew what my mood spots meant, she’d know I was worried sick. “Will you hold me like last night? Keep me warm? I liked that.”
My mind leaped back to the passionate encounter we’d shared last night—how I’d licked her repeatedly between her legs, along her delicate petals, until she’d come apart for me. And this morning, I’d dared to stretch her as I pleasured her in preparation for my cock. Remembering made me ache, heat surging through my veins and pooling in my groin. I wanted her badly. But tonight was not that night—she needed me in other ways, and whatever she needed, I’d provide.
We took our turns washing up, and then I helped her into my hammock and curled her into my arms like she’d asked. With my fingers, I gently massaged her scalp, and that seemed to ease the tension in her shoulders. When she fell asleep shortly after, I drew out a relieved breath and considered my options. Wasthere a doctor in Akrod that I could trust to treat her? There probably were; I just didn’t know any of them.
I’d let her rest for the night, and tomorrow I’d see how she was and if she needed further assistance. I did not know enough about humans to know if this was serious or not, so all I could do was trust her word. My Kara said she was fine, that I did not need to worry, so I wouldn’t. For now.
Chapter 15
Kara
Sleeping with clothes on didn’t make waking up in Rex’s arms any less intimate. Still deeply asleep, he’d curled one hand around my breast and held it snugly in his palm. My nipple perked as soon as I realized, heat arrowing through my bloodstream straight to my core. The fact that I was capable of feeling that kind of instant arousal made me realize something else: I was feeling much better.
By the time the perma-contacts should have started to work, I had a splitting headache and blurry vision to go with it. That was coupled with the feeling of failure because nothing Rex signed to me made any sense; it wasn’t working. In the morning light, I tried to tell myself that it took a little longer with humans to take effect. If he signed something to me today, I would be able to understand—I had to believe that.
The headache was gone, though my mouth was dry, and my eyes felt gritty. I felt worlds better than last night, but I was beginning to think I’d gotten scammed in more ways than one. I was still not sorry for drugging that alien, but in the light of day, I did fear that there might be repercussions. There was only one option: to come clean to Rex.
His breathing changed, the rise and fall of his chest beneath my head increasing from deep, slow breaths to a more alert pace. I knew he was waking up when his fingers around my breast twitched. The hammock swayed when he shifted, but I had gotten used to the gentle motion by now and didn’t startle. Thenhe abruptly lifted his hand from my chest, his eyes flying open and his mood spots flashing bright orange. My smile made his expression morph into an answering grin, and the spots turned yellow, then faded to a soft pink.
For leverage, I planted my elbow on one of his massive pecs, then scooted up so I could kiss him. He looked all tousled, his luscious black hair loose around his shoulders; too tempting to resist. Then my hip brushed his blatantly erect cock, and I felt a spiral of heat twist through my belly in response. Ah, I’d forgotten about glorious morning wood, but clearly, alien guys were not immune to it either.
I would have preferred to linger in bed with him, but when I sat up, I had to admit that my stomach was a little queasy. It was probably better if I took a quick shower and ate some breakfast before we got started on any more strenuous activities. Disappointing, but wise. It was also what Rex seemed to have in mind; he was quite firm as he ushered me to the bathroom with a hand at the small of my back.
When I was done washing up, he had prepped sandwiches waiting for me on a plate on his dresser, his four hands flying as he pruned leaves from his many plants and watered them with a dainty gunmetal-gray watering can. Rex loved plants; he had a ton of them in his kitchen too—mostly herbs—and one pretty climbing vine that he’d guided all around the ceiling.
I tried to talk to him without breaching any difficult topics, but it seemed Rex was more interested in studying my face once his plants were done. His palms slid over my cheeks, his eyes peered closely at mine. My stomach sank into my boots; did he alreadysuspect what I’d done? If only he’d sign something to me, then I’d know if it had worked or not.
I made another attempt to get him to sign things to me when we walked to the bar. I asked questions about the city, about Drova, even asked how he'd gotten here. Rex stayed stubbornly quiet, his eyes roving the streets carefully as if he expected danger waiting for us around the corner. They’d dip to me too, and when I nearly tripped over a slightly raised cobblestone, he swept me into his arms and refused to let me walk the final bit.
I was starting to feel grumpy by the time we began the frantic food prep for the lunch crowd. Hestillhadn’t signed anything, and he kept pushing me into a chair to sit or do things for me as if he thought I was sick or hurt. I knew I’d been in slightly rough shape last night, but I felt fine now, and it was driving me up a wall. “Please, Rex. Enough of this. I’m fine! Can you sign something for me?” I gestured with my hands in front of me. “You’re normally way more talkative.” I sounded peeved and frustrated, but it seemed that finally startled my alien chef into properly looking at me.
His brows lowered, and the many spots that freckled the bridge of his nose and cheeks darkened, a gray that made me feel ill at ease. Then his hands flew through the air and moved in a perfect, graceful dance. It looked like it always did when he signed at me, and for a moment, I felt all hope sink into my shoes. Then my brain itched, and suddenly things made sense—total, complete sense. “What do you want me to say, my love? You know you can’t understand, not yet. I will find a way to teach you or to get you perma-contacts, but they are expensive…” His hands lowered abruptly mid-sentence, and his eyes were huge in his face. “What’s going on?” He managed to make his handgestures convey the suspicion he was feeling, which made me smile.
“It worked! I can understand!” I exclaimed loudly and threw myself out of my chair and straight into his arms. He caught me around my waist, immediately lifting me into the air so I was at face height. He was still staring, one hand moving in the corner of my eye, asking me what was going on. I kissed him instead, eagerly pressing my mouth to his. “It worked, Rex! I can understand what you sign to me now!”
His spots turned bright yellow with happiness, then they faded to pink as we continued to make out like a pair of teenagers. It was the interruption of Drova barging into the kitchen that broke us apart. Rex growled silently, standing protectively in front of me with all four of his arms spread wide. He was even holding a knife. A blush scorched my cheeks as I peered from behind his bulky shoulders at the old Asrai, who cackled like a maniac. “Don’t mind me. Just here to remind you to get to fucking work! The bar is packing a crowd.” He jabbed a finger at me, then snatched it back when Rex nearly cut it off with a swipe of the knife. “Get to work, waitress. What am I paying you for?”
I ducked around Rex, patted his impressive abs with a smile, and followed Drova. “It’s fine! I have to get to work. We’ll talk more later, okay?” He signed a vehement disagreement, which I could follow word for word, but he didn’t stop me when I ducked into the taproom anyway.
Chapter 16
Rex
Kara could understand my sign language. I didn’t understand how that was possible, and it was both a joyous thing and something that made me worried. I knew she’d looked up lessons on my datapad, which had pleased me a lot, but I knew she couldn’t possibly have learned everything that fast. She had somehow obtained perma-contacts, but how? There was only one likely answer: Drova.
I needed to corner the Asrai and get the truth from him, but he was right; the bar was packed to the rafters. If I wanted to keep this place running, I had work to do first. Lunch pies, sandwiches, soups — even with four hands, they were filled to overflowing with work. It wasn’t until the rush died down, and Kara was bussing tables rather than serving them, that I could trap the sneaky Asrai in a corner by the bar for that much-needed talk.
His eyes went wide when I stalked toward him. His scent turned an acrid sour from fear, but shutters dropped over his expression soon thereafter. A cunning look appeared in his dark red eyes as he peered at me from his deep-set eye sockets inside his skull-like face. “You’re going to have to ask your little woman,” he said, “unless you’re willing to pay for this information. Say, with your shares in my bar?”
